Web Technologies

Over the last 3 years I've been working as a senior .net contractor which has meant that I haven't been blogging as much as I'd have liked. To try and fix this and to encourage myself to blog more I'm going to try something a little different and create a monthly blog series that will highlight some of the of the best web design and web development news that has caught my eye over the last 30 days or so.

There are already tons of great daily and weekly web tech feeds out there but sometimes it can feel a bit like information overload. To set myself apart from these feeds I'm not going to list every single news item from the last month. Instead I'm going to pick the 'best bits' from the last few weeks and highlight what I feel are the big hitters. This could include news about asp.net, some JS framework news, TypeScript updates, GIT hints and tips, CodePen.io links or even just some funky UX techniques I've stumbled upon.

Hopefully you'll find it useful. The first issue will drop next month so keep an eye out on Twitter for #WebDevMonthly. If you've spotted anything interesting recently be sure to reach out to me on Twitter to let me know: @RichardReddy

It might been a bit slow to start but EasyHouseExchange.com is finally firing up! We have had a few calls from television stations about the site after our mention in the Sunday Times yesterday. If we can get onto even a few of these shows then the publicity it would generate has the potential to be massive. We had over 250 people register with us over the weekend alone and 75% of those people signed up to put up their properties online. Thanks for the support guys, without your properties this site would be nothing! With the recession biting at everyone's heals it makes more sense to advertise your property online and with Easy House Exchange people can easily setup their account and upload properties in a matter of minutes. No waiting, no fuss and, until June 01, no fees! It's a no brainer!

In preparation for the increased traffic I have setup Gzip on the server to compress the pages and save on bandwidth. I noticed about a 35% speed increase in page delivery on this and with our new online store software which is great. EasyHouseExchange.com is a well optimized site as it is so I am confident our server can take the hit in traffic in its stride. Over the next few weeks we will be gearing up to release some new features onto easy house exchange and we are completing our next online store for a furniture company called HouseOfBeth.ie. After this store is completed we are starting our marketing campaign to tap into the online store software market so stay tuned for some massive developments with our online software software over the next few weeks!

Email Marketing. Your customers can easily sign up, and opt out of email marketing on the site. You have total control over the email's sent to your customers. Includes filters to effectively targeting the right people.

Site optimized for speed. Sites load insanely fast and fully tested with over 100,000 products and orders in the system - it's fully robust!

And much much more!

If you think you might be interested in taking our store software for a spin simply contact Dragnet Systems today and see how this software could help your online business succeed.

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This ends my shameless plug ;) Sorry about that, I'm just very excited about this new product!

Microsoft has announced Windows Azure as the name for their upcoming Cloud services platform.They have also released the Azure SDK which plugs in nicely with Visual Studio 2008 and lets you debug locally. From watching the demos on the Azure site it looks like a pretty neat setup, much like the Google and amazon offerings that have popped up recently. The main difference with Azure is that it can run your regular .net code out of the box.

One thing that's not mentioned anywhere yet is the pricing for this setup. Microsoft will host your application on their servers so you will have to pay them something but I have a feeling that this could launch for free up to a certain amount of bandwidth like Google's setup. Time will tell. I've signed up for a beta pass and will post more if I get an invite.

One complaint I have is that the main Azure website left a lot to be desired! I know, it's all about the tech but guys come on! That front page with pictures of space, what looks like an oil rig and a lone programmer are very dodgy. Azure sounds sexy and exciting, there should be cool images of sample apps showing possible uses for the tech or something.